4 Comments

RIAA will win if you wipe your hardrive

August 26, 2006 by in AV,Entertainment,Stupid with 4 Comments

Do not wipe your hardrive clean in an attempt to circumvent charges brought forward by the RIAA! In the cited case, the defendant utilized a disk cleaning utility to “wipe” a hardrive clean. The court ruled in the RIAA’s favor due to the fact that the defendant willingly damaged evidence.

In Arista v. Tschirhart, in San Antonio, Texas, the judge awarded judgment to the RIAA because the defendant — in violation of a court order directing her to produce her computer’s hard drive for inspection — had the hard drive “wiped” first, thus deleting song files that had been downloaded. The court noted that this “wiping” irreparably prejudiced the RIAA because the only evidence it had without the hard drive was “scant and piecemeal”.

Who wouldn’t feel inclined to wipe their hardrive clean after being chased by the RIAA?


  • http://quatre.wordpress.com Matthew

    Here’s the question: Did she wipe it right after the accusation or after the court asked her for it? I really would like to know if there is a difference.

  • Mike

    right after the accusation would have worked I think but when the court asked for it thats definately tampering with evidence. if I got the letter I’d immedietely buy a new hard drive and dispose (see cremate) the old one.

  • NyaR

    is moving all the illicit files to an encryped directory (truecrypt etc) considered tampering with evidence?

    what if you altered the timestamp on the truecrypt file to say it was made prior to the court date?

    you got the right to remain silent, so keep your password to yourself :)

  • heynorton

    Uhm. Which harddrive?

    I have 11 of them in my computer. I’ll send them my OS drive, or my swap drive.

    :-)

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